Star Trek: Discovery 4x11 "Rosetta" Review

rating: ***

the story: Burnham leads an away team that explores a planet that may be the key to understanding Species 10C.

review: This is the kind of episode that should absolutely happen in a serialized version of Star Trek that nonetheless still has to have episodic elements.  Too often Discovery has stumbled on such elements, especially ones that try to simulate classic franchise material, and yet this time everything works quite nicely.

The away team (as with the rest of the season, a spotlight is given to one of the bridge crew, this time Detmer, who ordinarily have mere supporting roles in the background) experiences strange sensations that might have played out in a more outlandish fashion had the episode not managed sufficient control of itself (actually, I've often yearned for this when watching Star Trek in general), moving on rather than lingering on a given element.  To wit: Saru is the first affected by the elements on the planet, but quickly enough Burnham and Culber are, too, and then they realize why, and solve the problem, and make further breakthroughs.

This whole process is mirrored by how Reno is featured in the episode.  Reno has been considered a regular member of the ensemble this season despite this being only her second appearance so far, and even in this one she doesn't seem like her usual self, initially, just an excuse to be present and accounted for, until the twist at the end that adds a much-welcome further wrinkle to the season arc.  To know more about that you'll just have to wait and read the review of the next episode, if you haven't by then caught up.

So for me it's quite a rewarding episode, including how the delegates are used.  It's very much a Xindi Council, third season Enterprise kind of experience for me, and as a fan of that season and series, it's nice to be able to say that.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - By side-stepping the typical pitfalls in Star Trek storytelling, it actually transcends them in a very welcome way.
• series - Which further distinguishes Discovery as blazing its own path.
• character - Detmer might end up feeling the most organic use of background characters in the foreground this season, though the Reno twist is my favorite, as it has far more potential.
• essential - The plot advances on a few levels, one in a very unexpected but very welcome way.